Upgrading from Vans std tailwheel to a lightweight TW: here's the numbers I found:

Hi all.

I've just replaced Vans std TW with a lightweight version bought from Vince and Blake at Flyboy Accessories, and here's the numbers and experiences so far.

The TW looked like a piece of art when I took it out of the box:



I also bought some spareparts because those springs and little things have a nasty habbit of getting lost.




First I compared their diameter:
Vans TW is 15 cm diameter.
FlyBoys is 14 cm.







Then I compared the width:
Vans is 5,5 cm.
FlyBoy is 3,5 cm rubber and 5,5 including the bearing.








Finally the weight: Vans is 1100 grams








FlyBoy is 740 grams:






Mounted on the fork, Vans TW distance from the floor to the center was 68 mm:







Flyboy was 65 mm above the floor:






Finally I measured the angle of the fuse:



Both wheels indicated an angle of 10,9* and that makes sense since the height above the floor was almost the same.


I haven't flown with the new TW yet because bad weather, but next week it's forecasted to clear up. Then it'll be time for flying and I'll post my experiences afterwards.


In a month or so, I'll get hold of some calibrated weights and weigh in the plane with both the old and the new TW.
It'll be interesting to see how much (if any?) the CG has moved fwd.
Maybe someone else has done this already?

Stand by for updates.

Lastly: Blake and Vince is very nice to do business with and they provide very nice customer care!

Thanks for posting the comparison. I look forward to reading your flight review. I'm considering the same upgrade on my -7 build.

I am also considering the same upgrade. Will be waiting for your update to see if the CG changed.

I just did this upgrade a few weeks ago.

One of the unexpected benefits was that the LW wheel is of a much harder durometer of rubber and it does not bounce as much!

That is Dayton's tail wheel. Same guy that makes Vans throttle quadrants. I noticed a big difference during taxi ops. Hope you like it. I love mine.

Btw, on my 4 the tailwheel spins slowly in flight.

Dayton's TW

I received one of Dayton's first production tail wheels.
My post is long gone, but it said it made me younger, lighter, better looking, faster, more responsive, and in general a better pilot.
Good job Dayton!!!
Every RV flyer need to get on of these tail wheels.

AX-O said:

That is Dayton's tail wheel. Same guy that makes Vans throttle quadrants. I noticed a big difference during taxi ops. Hope you like it. I love mine.

Btw, on my 4 the tailwheel spins slowly in flight.

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Jaypratt said:

I received one of Dayton's first production tail wheels.
My post is long gone, but it said it made me younger, lighter, better looking, faster, more responsive, and in general a better pilot.
Good job Dayton!!!
Every RV flyer need to get on of these tail wheels.

Click to expand...

Concur..Dayton's TW is a nice piece of gear, and Vince and Blake are great to work with!

Mine has worn very well, even in the crucible of Reno-Stead home field ramp ops?I have a heavier-than average tail weight, and we have the most cavernous expansion joints of any ramp I've seen (and there is a tar flow off the coast of Madagascar, where all the annual refill goop must be going). The DM/FB lightweight tailwheel has earned its stripes there!

Mine spins in flight too?and when Axel and I fly formation, they spin in sync!

Jay's right on all counts?except for the faster part?but Dayton, Vince and I have something up our sleeves. Tell ya all about it?in mid-September!

Cheers,
Bob

I built my 8 and did the first flight on august, 2010

On november 2011 I upgraded the tailwheel with the FlyBoy fork and lightweight wheel, I had an incredible improvement in ground control of the aircraft during taxi, takeoff and landing roll.

It's a great products, easy to promote



ps: shadows are strange in this photo but the tail fork is perfect

used one originally but it's on the shelf now...

am using the Van's now. the improved product is way smoother and higher quality in general; I used and loved it for about 200 hours, but then the rubber separated from the metal hub. that made for really crappy taxiing and I replaced it "temporarily" with the van's model and shoo-gooed it. will put it back on the airplane at the next CI, most likely, and the Van's will become the Shelf Stock. BTW, Shoo Goo is great stuff too.

Flight report

Yesterday, I did the first flight with the new TW.

It was only one flight with one takeoff and one landing, (no T/G's since I'm in the break-in phase) so my experience with this TW is limited to say the least.
BTW: I have Vans TW chains with the std slack shown on the drawing.

I found that the steering during taxi was slightly more "stable". (the plane didn't need quite som much steering with the rudder-pedals to stay on course)

During takeoff, I didn't notice any difference.

During landing rollout, the steering felt slightly more stable. (10-15 kts X-wind)

The TW-noise heard inside the plane during all phases where alittle different, (slightly different rumble) but the noise-level was the same as Vans TW.

All-in-all: not any big differences, but at least it's some approvement.

Hopefully I'll find that the CG has moved alittle fwd when I'll weight the plane in a month or so.
Also: during postflight, there was NO GREASE slung around on the TW fork or the rudderbottom! BIG improvement!

It's good to know that the bearings are sealed so no dirt or dust can enter the bearing. That's a BIG advantage in my book.

PS: I'll have a friend join on me soon to see if the TW spins in flight. Funny thing....

Luke,
Your picture of the tailwheel has cables in place of springs on the tailwheel steering. How well has that worked? It should be both lighter and more positive than chains and springs. And less likely to wear and fail like the little links on the ends of the chains.

wilddog said:

Luke,
Your picture of the tailwheel has cables in place of springs on the tailwheel steering. How well has that worked? It should be both lighter and more positive than chains and springs. And less likely to wear and fail like the little links on the ends of the chains.

Click to expand...

I have the same ones on my plane and they work great and have held up very well. They are sold by a guy in one of the EAA chapter newsletters. They are called Tail Lynx.

Vans also has em now:

https://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?ident=1362557019-148-219&browse=misc&product=tail-lynx




They can be really stiff or really sloppy depending on how you like it and how long you make the cables. If you make em really tight, they will hit the bottom of the rudder fairing during full rudder travel. (Same as with chains)

To complete my installation info... I have a Screaming Eagle Retrofit Tailwheel Fork that improves everything changing the centre wheel steering force angle, Brantel said the rest

Brantel said:

I have the same ones on my plane and they work great and have held up very well. They are sold by a guy in one of the EAA chapter newsletters. They are called Tail Lynx.

Vans also has em now:

https://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?ident=1362557019-148-219&browse=misc&product=tail-lynx

They can be really stiff or really sloppy depending on how you like it and how long you make the cables. If you make em really tight, they will hit the bottom of the rudder fairing during full rudder travel. (Same as with chains)

Click to expand...

Yes, the lightweight tire is indeed made by Dayton Murdock of DJM Mfg. He sells them through several vendors, including us. Dayton is the MAN! He makes some great products.

We also have another option that wasn't compared here:
http://www.flyboyaccessories.com/Deluxe-Tailwheel-Tire-p/1001.htm

It's a compromise between the other 2 tires, mid-price, mid-weight, sealed bearings, great tread wear, not as sexy as the lightweight tire, but never drools grease like the van's tire.

A kind "thank you" to those who said some very nice things about our small, family biz. We're all in this together and we're very happy to do our small part to help other RVers.

I have used all three.
I am currently running Vince's medium weight wheel and bearing set on a Bell fork with Tail Lynx (loose).

Dayton's wheel and tire is very nice. However, I needed a little more weight back there and even a few ounces did make a difference in solo landing trim. The one thing that I didn't like is the square shoulders of the tire. Not a big deal but you can "feel" the edge of the tire in ground maneuvering. I believe my loose cables makes this more noticeable.

Vince's wheel and tire added just a little extra weight that trimmed better for me. It's rounded shoulders feels better when taxiing.

Both Dayton's and Vince's are noticeably more noisy, especially on rough surfaces, than stock Van's wheel and tire. This is contrary to others experiences.

While the tail wheel is certainly important, the geometry change going to the Bell, which would be similar to Vince's product, was substantially more of a percentage of improvement than the tail wheel was.

Why I swithed away from Vans's? I had two wheels in a row with out of round tires. Rather than chuck them up in the lathe I chose to take the easy path and upgrade for the bearing set.

I would not hesitate to buy either of their products.